Kashmir, and Kashmiri women

On hearing the appeal filed by the government, division bench of Jammu &Kashmir (Indian Occupied) High Court, on Saturday 2 June 2018 quashed the bail granted to three Kashmiri women. Additional Sessions Judge Anantnag had granted bail to Dukhtaran-e-Milat chief Asiya Andrabi and her two associates Nahida Nasreen and Sofi Fahmeeda. The three Kashmiri women were arrested from Anchidora area of Anantnag district on April 20 for allegedly organising violent student protests that involved stone-pelting on government forces and instigating people to boycott the parliamentary by-elections for the Anantnag seat. The division bench which quashed the bail, comprised of Acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice M K Hanjura.

Pakistan has the dulcimer and the drum to play on behalf of Kashmir. It is a member nation of the UN and has Charter obligations. Pakistan is a party to the Kashmir dispute and has accepted obligations under UNSC and UNCIP Resolutions. We don’t want to unearth the RSS plans about Kashmir and Indian Muslims — and be communal. Unfortunately, RSS, after its 1931 and 1947 plan, continued to work on its agenda, without disturbing Pakistan or Muslims of India, till it took power in the disputed state of Kashmir after 2014 elections.

The Government of Pakistan remained occupied with a trust handled through its Kashmir Committee headed by Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman for five years, which hardly did anything and wasted enormous budget and time in sending MNAs to various capitals. Nawaz Sharif, except at the UN General Assembly, failed or ignored to commit himself and his government in the best interests of the suffering Kashmiri people.

Kashmir is an intra-agency subject. The discourse could be defined in many myriad ways. The intra-agency behaviour of work on Kashmir provides the elected civilian governments with an exit ramp to run away from a full five-year commitment. The situation may have calmed down on the border, but we should not allow Indian soldiers to turn their guns on Kashmiri people. We should not sit idle and allow India to use its judiciary to humble and cage our women. Those who work on Track II should not wash their hands off and should challenge their counterparts on the issue of Kashmiri women.

The intra-agency behaviour of work on Kashmir provides the elected civilian governments with an exit ramp to run away from a full five-year commitment

We have to tell a story. Kashmir has an RSS blessed BJP government. We don’t have any conflict with RSS. It is RSS that has started a conflict with the Muslims of Kashmir. RSS is known to have sent volunteers in 1931 to assist the Dogra forces to suppress the Muslim uprising in the valley. In the aftermath of the 2014 poll results in Kashmir, the RSS’ organ, Organiser, reprinted its editorials and writings of 1948. One editorial of 15 January 1948 was entitled “Kashmir The Spiritual Home of Hindus”. It continued, “The Maharaja is more sinned against than sinning. The Hindu kingdom is one of the oldest in world history and is an indissoluble part of the cultural hegemony of the Hindustan”. The reprint’s object is obvious — Hindu Raj should now be revived in Kashmir.

We failed to tell the people of Pakistan and the people of the world that soon after the polls were over in Kashmir, Organiser of 4 January 2015 wrote: “For Jharkhand, it is a verdict to initiate development.” But the verdict for J&K is different — “and for J&K, it is a beginning of real democratic integration”.

RSS and The Hindu Mahasabha in the aftermath of Jammu and Kashmir elections have reverted back to 1947 and 1948 anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan campaign in their literature. The Hindu Outlook edited by Mr G Deshpande, the Secretary General of the Hindu Mahasabha, is on record in the UN debates of 1948 that it published an article in the issue of 9 September 1947, calling upon Hindus and Sikhs to do the following: a) remove the present government, which is composed of men of straw, and replace it by men who would be strong Hindus; b) declare the Indian Union a Hindu state; c) prepare the country on the basis of a war with Pakistan; d) impose conscription and recruit all young Hindus to army; e) treat all Muslims as fifth columnists, and f) declare the professing of Islam as unlawful.

The UN archives have recorded the evidence that Muslim populations in the states of Alwar, Bharatpur, Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, Kapurthala and Gwalior were wiped out either by massacre or by forcible expulsions. These records show that Kapurthala, which had a Muslim majority of 235,000, was left with only two Muslims when evidence was submitted to UN Security Council on 16 January 1948. Jammu was also trashed from a Muslim majority into a Hindu majority province.

The caretaker government has a strong juridical component. Let us hope that government does not ignore to play its dulcimer and drum on Kashmir.

The author is the President of JKCHR — NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. He is a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. Email: dr-nazirgilani@jkchr.com